Origin
The ballet, based on an earlier ballet composed in 1939 by Khachaturian called Happiness, was created when the Kirov ballet was in Perm (during the World War II evacuation). Khachaturian started composing the score in autumn 1941, and the ballet was first mounted on 3 December 1942 on the small stage of the Perm state theatre. But despite these limitations, the effect was profound; in effect, the message was that the company was continuing to exist and to produce new ballets, despite the very hard times. Anisimova invited different dancers to participate in her ballet, dancers who happened to be in the city at that time: there was a sense of camaraderie and combined effort which suited the positive feeling of the ballet itself.
The principal dancers were: Natalia Dudinskaya (Gayane), Nikolai Zubkovsky (Karen), Konstantin Sergeyev (Armen), Tatanya Vecheslova (Nune), and Boris Shavrov (Giko). The conductor was Pavel Feldt.
The composition, the music, the dancing — all together created something which, regardless of the weaknesses in the libretto, expressed the triumph of dancing and its many different possibilities.
Read more about this topic: Gayane (ballet)
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